Sunday, February 22, 2009

No. 13 Louie Bellson



There is alot I want to say about this man.... he was not only a drummer, he was really the legend...one of the "Big Three" in drumming. A legend that has passed on...
Louie Bellson

I'm so saddened by the fact that he is now no longer here... Next to Buddy Rich, no other drummer has impacted the world of drumming like Louie Bellson. Believe it or not... Mr. Bellson was one of the first drummers who pioneered and incorporated double bass drums in his playing. He has impressed us all on his amazing speed. Smacking the face of young drummers like me who thinks we are fast!

But now...we have to move on and remember that one of the greatest drummers on Earth has left us...a legacy of truly amazing drumming and music! To Mr. Louie Bellson... a composer, arranger, bandleader, tireless jazz educator and the world's greatest drummer the world has ever witnessed. 1924–2009


Here's Louie performing at the Buddy Rich Memorial concert in 1991.



Photos and info courtesy of www.drummerworld.com
Videos from YouTube.

Friday, February 6, 2009

No. 12 ~ Steve Gadd ~


A drummer who took drumming into amazing heights. He is indeed one of the most talked about drummers of this time for being one of the most influential drummer that there is. He is probably by far one of the most imitated drummer in the world. Making drummers like me trying to imitate great grooves and solos such as "Crazy Army, The Mozambique, and 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover groove." Of course, I'm talking about non-other then the astounding Dr. Steve Gadd!

This man is what many young drummers like me call a living legend! His simple yet advance groove is legendary! Probably one of his most well recognized work is with Paul Simon on the song "Late In The Evening" with his Mozambique groove. Using 4 drumsticks "two sticks for each hand."



Being an in-demand drummer, he has worked with many great artists such as Paul Simon, The Bee Gees, Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, James Brown, Chick Corea, Frank Sinatra, to just name a few. He is without a doubt one of the greatest drummers I have ever seen!

One song he is also well known for is "Take The A Train"


Michel Petrucciani - Piano, Anthony Jackson - Bass, Steve Gadd - Drums. The solo at the 5 minute mark is astounding, if you listen to it, you feel like he is telling a story with the drums. It is amazing!

Another video which he is most notoriously famous for is a drum solo with Dave Weckl and Vinnie Colaiuta in the Buddy Rich Memorial Concert. Out of those 3 drummers, Gadd was pretty much the highlight in the whole video.



Dont believe me? You can click on the vid and see who all the Youtubers like and agree on who's the greatest out of the 3. If you still dont know which one... he's the one in the middle. And around 2:47 of the video... that is the "Crazy Army" which has led many drummers wishing they could do it exactly like Steve did, and at 3:25, that's the Mozambique!!! So you can cleary see why drummers everywhere loves his style of groove and soloing.

Steve Gadd is definitely one that will always be remembered as the groove king! To me, a legend that I most definitely would want to meet, and see perform live before I die. To Dr. Steve Gadd, the drummer, the drumming icon, the living legend!
the earlier years

Steve Gadd is endorsed by Yamaha Drums, Zildjian Cymbals, Vic Firth Sticks, and Remo DrumHeads
photos and infos courtesy of www.DrummerWorld.com and www.DrSteveGadd.com

Thursday, February 5, 2009

No. 11 ~ Drummers Drumming and What Not ~

Hi all, for the next couple of blog posts, I'll be blogging about all my favorite drummers as to what they have contributed into the music world and also how they have impact my life as a drummer. Making the drum set such an awesome instrument to play. I'm a "drum-aholic" and I intend to keep my name up to standard. I've heard of many people who called themselves "drum-aholics" and told me they have no idea who is Steve Gadd, Ringgo Star, or even Buddy Rich!!! Instead, they would be naming the most overrated drummers such as Travis Barker of Blink 182 or Joey Jordison of SlipKnot...

That is equivalent to a guitarholic saying they dont who Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, or Jimi Hendrix is!!!! If you are neither a drum-aholic or a guitarholic and you have no idea who these guys are; lets just say you call yourself a Classical Pianist and you have never heard of Beethoven, Mozart or Johann Sebastian Bach! If that is still theoratically hard to understand, then just imagine you call yourself a Christian and you dont know who Jesus Christ is!!!! It's that bad!!!!

Alright, so from now on, this blog will be dedicated to all the drummers out there and to those who are interested about drumming... I will only be talking about all the drummers that you see on the right column "drummers I like" and more. Accept for Arthur Kam and Anson Lau... for obvious reasons. (laughs)

For my other fellow readers who are not interested about this topic whatsoever, you can go to my Xanga blog, I will be posting about others things like life in general while this topic is going on...

Alright then! Buckle up guys n (hopefully some gals) for lots of pictures of drummers, drum sets, drumsticks, cymbals, bios, and lots and lots of drum videos! Enjoy and God bless!!!


note: Travis Barker and Joey Jordison will still be mentioned in my blog despite the overrated views from everyone because these two are also very good drummers...

Sunday, February 1, 2009

No. 10 ~ Me Workshop ~

The workshop I had was good. Too bad all the pictures my bro took were all blur. And the video recording had extremely bad sound quality. To put it in short. It was great...too bad you guys cant see any of the pictures or videos.

p/s.This is pretty much why I want to live in Singapore....



Wenda (guy on the left) He's the one who got 4th place in Drum Challenge Asia from my category.

Aaron James Lee (guy in black shirt) Winner of 12 and Under Category for Drum Challenge Asia and

Liang Hong (guy on the right) He made it only into the semis.

See how mind bogglingly good they are now!!!!